Graduate Research Training on Alcohol Problems

Biosketches of Current Fellows

 

Predoctoral:

 

Krista Drescher Burke, M.S.W.

Krista Drescher Burke is a doctoral candidate in the School of Social Welfare at UC Berkeley. Her dissertation research uses qualitative in- depth interviews to explore the contraceptive practices of alcohol- and drug-using women. Ms. Drescher Burke received her MSW and Bachelor of Arts in Social Work from the University of Kentucky.  Other research interests include health and foster care. Ms. Drescher Burke has practice experience with foster youth living in a group home, victims of domestic violence, women in recovery, and the bereaved. Ms. Drescher Burke has taught a number of MSW research courses, as well as an introductory course to the field of social work. She has also been a teaching assistant for MSW research and an undergraduate social welfare policy course.
 

Lyndsay Ammon, M.P.H.

Lyndsay Ammon is a doctoral candidate in epidemiology at UC Berkeley's School of Public Health. She is interested in nutrition's role in the relationship between fetal alcohol exposure and various fetal outcomes including miscarriage, preterm birth, low birth weight, Apgar scores, and fetal alcohol syndrome. Under the mentorship of Lee Kaskutas, Ms. Ammon is conducting secondary analysis on a cohort study of pregnant Kaiser Permanente Healthcare Program members. Ms. Ammon's dissertation is titled "Does Antioxidant Supplementation Protect against the Harmful Effects of Perinatal Alcohol Exposure?"  Ms. Ammon received her MPH in epidemiology and biostatistics from Boston University and a BS in Animal Physiology and Neuroscience from UC San Diego. She has worked as a research associate at the Alcohol Research Group since graduating with her MPH in 2002. She has also been a graduate student instructor for several epidemiology methods courses. Ms. Ammon's other research interests include the relationship between alcohol and drug use and sexual risk behaviors.
 

Sarah C. Roberts, M.P.H.

Sarah Roberts is a doctoral candidate in the DrPH Program at the University California, Berkeley School of Public Health.  Her interests include public health?s role in addressing ?social problems? and the social determinants of health, gender and women?s health, and drug and alcohol policy.  For her dissertation, she is conducting a mixed methods study to understand the relationship between universal screening for alcohol and drug use in prenatal care and reporting to Child Protective Services.  In addition to her doctoral studies, Ms. Roberts works part time with the Family, Maternal, and Child Health Programs at Contra Costa Health Services, where she translates her research into action by developing multi-level interventions to build trust with pregnant substance-using women and reduce barriers to prenatal care for this population.  Sarah has a BA in History from Columbia University and an MPH and Graduate Certificate in Women's Studies from the University of Michigan.
 

 

Postdoctoral:

Amanda Reiman, Ph.D.

Amanda Reiman received her Master’s Degree in Social Work from the University of Illinois, Chicago, and her Ph.D. in Social Welfare from the University of California, Berkeley. While completing a predoctoral fellowship with the Alcohol Research Group, Dr. Reiman completed her dissertation entitled, Cannabis Care: Medical marijuana facilities as health service providers. In addition to being a postdoctoral fellow, Dr. Reiman is also a lecturer in the School of Social Welfare at the University of California, Berkeley. Dr. Reiman’s work as a postdoctoral fellow at ARG will focus on marijuana use in the general population.

Won Kim Cook, Ph.D

Won Kim Cook has received her Ph.D. in sociology from Northwestern University and her M.P.H from the University of California, Berkeley. Previously she has taught at several educational institutions including Northwestern University and Beloit College. Her research interests include: comparative analyses of alcohol policy and its effects on alcohol consumption and injuries; and alcohol-related health disparity issues, such as the stressors that encourage drinking, behavioral outcomes of drinking including child and intimate partner violence, and efforts to address these issues as part of a comprehensive community-building strategy for disadvantaged communities. At ARG, she is involved in the WHO Collaborative Study on Alcohol and Injuries and the Emergency Room Collaborative Alcohol Analysis Project (ERCAAP), replicating the former in Korea and conducting comparative analyses of policy-related contextual factors that affect alcohol-related injuries.

Katherine Karriker-Jaffe, Ph.D

 Katherine Karriker-Jaffe completed her doctorate in the Department of Health Behavior and Health Education at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC-Chapel Hill). Her prior academic preparation included a Master’s of Science from the Department of Communication at Cornell University and a Bachelor’s of Science from the Department of Psychology at the University of Oklahoma, where she also completed a minor in Spanish. She has worked in the area of child and adolescent health promotion for 13 years, and her dissertation focused on understanding the role of neighborhood, family and individual psychosocial factors on the development of youth health risk behaviors. As a postdoctoral research fellow, she is examining how community and cultural determinants create racial/ethnic and socioeconomic disparities in alcohol use and its consequences. She is a member of Phi Beta Kappa and Phi Kappa Phi honor societies, as well as the Society for Community Research and Action and the San Francisco Bay Area Evaluators

 

Dan Nyaronga, Ph.D
Dan Nyaronga completed both his doctorate and Master?s of Science in the Department of Human Development and Family Studies at Iowa State University with a focus on Lifespan studies. He also completed a minor in Gerontology from the same institution with additional training in multivariate analysis, multilevel modeling, structural equation modeling (SEM), as well as data analysis using SPSS, SAS, LISREL, and HLM. Dr. Nyaronga has a Bachelor?s degree in Community Development from Daystar University, Nairobi, where he also moderated Community Oriented Project Planning (COPP) Workshops on problem analysis and planning using SMART objectives. Previously he has taught as an adjunct instructor at Des Moines area community college (DMACC) in Iowa. His research at ARG focuses on: understanding the influences of neighborhood socioeconomic status, race/ethnicity, and family (risk and resources) on the development of youth health risk behaviors. He is a member of Sigma Phi Omega (SPO) and National Council on Family Relations (NCFR).